Iris Kendall Responds To Love Island: Beyond The Villa Hate

Iris Kendall has been getting a lot of hate after her stint on Love Island: Beyond The Villa Season 2. Specifically, Kendall’s on-screen interactions with Belle-A Walker, Gracyn Blackmore, and her ex Pepe Garcia have garnered major criticism. Taking to TikTok on May 11, Kendall addressed the backlash — and she included plenty of receipts in the form of screenshots.

First up, Kendall discussed her confrontation with Garcia. In Episode 5, Kendall and her now-boyfriend TJ Palma accused Garcia of lying to both of them. "[Pepe] told me told me that, ‘TJ told me you sucked his d*ck in Koreatown when you met up with him,'" Iris said on the show. "When TJ and I rekindled, I asked him about this and he was like, ‘What the hell, I never said this.'... He needs to apologize to TJ because he took time away by lying.”

According to Palma, Garcia also lied about his history. "While Iris and Pepe were together, Pepe told Iris, 'TJ’s f*cking Gracyn, so I could totally see Iris maybe believing him."

However, when they went to confront Garcia with screenshots, he denied lying — and Kendall’s phone was out of battery, so she couldn’t show the texts where he said what she claimed. Audiences, however, doubted her story, especially since her phone seemed to be working in the scene. Kendall clarified on TikTok, “What wasn’t show is that we charged my phone and we were able to go back and pull up the entire text message thread, and we were able to confirm that those messages came directly from his phone number.”

She also shared a screen recording of the texts, confirming that Garcia did claim that Palma had told him that Kendall “sucked his d*ck.”

She also explained her resistance to give “him an opportunity” to talk on camera since he didn’t attempt to connect with her after their split. She also said she felt “gaslit” in the conversation, despite showing him receipts.

In the video, Kendall also addressed comments about her behavior towards the other women on the show, specifically Walker and Blackmore. While Kendall explained that she wished she approached some things differently, she also explained her perspective on these relationships.

That said, Kendall did point out some inconsistencies with the show storyline and real life. “From my perspective, everything felt completely normal between us in real life,” Kendall said about her relationship with Walker, alongside photos and videos of the two of them. “There was never any tension communicated off-camera.”

She also clarified why Walker’s relationship with Garcia rubbed her the wrong way. According to her, there was a “contradiction” between what Walker said on- and off-camera. Kendall claimed that before filming, Walker said “her loyalty is with the girls,” which is why she was confused by her wanting to hear “both sides of the story” later on.

Kendall also included screenshots of texts between the two of them, which included messages from Kendall, reaching out to Walker. Plus, a text from Walker, which read, “you always include me in everything and that makes me feel so loved.”

She also included texts of her reaching out to Blackmore, inviting her places. “I don’t want to diminish anyone’s experience if that’s actually genuinely how they felt, but from my perspective, I didn’t intentionally exclude anybody. I actually am closer to some of the girls because I did spend more time with them in the villa,” she said before reiterating. “It was never my intention to make anybody feel left out.”

Kendall concluded by saying that she knows she “didn’t handle everything perfectly” and there are things she wished that she “approached differently.” Still, she wished people were not so quick to “discredit” her “without having the full context.”